During the last several years, many advances have been made in efficacy and commercial viability of disposable surgical instruments, which eliminate the need for sterilization of surgical instruments after every use. Recently, however, due to the increasing expense of all surgical instruments, coupled with new accounting methods being imposed upon hospitals and other providers of medical services, the cost of disposable surgical instruments has become an increasingly important factor.
In an attempt to reduce the expense of disposable surgical instruments, while still providing a dependable and reliable product, a variety of plastic products have been developed, some with metal portions incorporated therein, where required, for added strength and rigidity. However, the attainment of a dependable, disposable, surgical, pivotable jaw-clamping instrument, which possesses close tolerances and high quality, while also being competitively priced, has eluded prior art developers.
In order to attain an effective pivotable, jaw-clamping surgical instrument, the instrument must be capable of producing and enduring large compressive forces on the faces of the jaw members and be able to withstand substantial bending forces on the arms, in order for the instrument to perform its requisite function.
In general, plastic instruments and metal reinforced plastic instruments have been totally unable to meet the demands inherent in such a product. Typically, these prior art products are incapable of having the clamping jaws fully engaged, without producing separation of a portion of the jaws when added force is applied. In addition, these prior art instruments frequency suffer breakage during use.
As a result, pivotable, jaw-clamping surgical instruments are typically made from all metal members which are either forged or formed from stainless steel. In this way, the requisite force demand to which the surgical instruments are put are capable of being attained.
Although attempts have been made to reduce the expense of manufacture for pivotable, jaw-clamping surgical instruments, no substantial cost reductions have been achieved. In this regard, some attempts have been made to employ die-casting for the construction of pivotable, jaw-clamping surgical instruments, since the expense of die-casting is substantially less than forging. However, the metals used in die casting are substantially softer, have a much lower tensile strength, and are likely to fracture more readily than forged metals. Consequently, any attempt to manufacture die-cast pivotable, jaw-clamping surgical instruments have failed, since the end product was incapable of withstanding the force demands inherent in the use of the product, without suffering unwanted bending or fracturing.
Consequently, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a disposable, pivotable, jaw-clamping surgical instrument which incorporates die-cast jaw members and is capable of being successfully used in all surgical procedures without experiencing any degradation or failure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide pivotable, jaw-clamping, disposable surgical instruments having the characteristic features described above which are easy to employ and provide the user with a similar grip and feel as more expensive, reusable surgical instruments.
Another object of the present invention is to provide pivotable, jaw-clamping, disposable surgical instruments having the characteristic features described above which are inherently less expensive to manufacture, while still being dependable and trouble-free in use and operation.
Other and more specific objects will, in part, be obvious and will, in part, appear hereinafter.